Transportation: June 2008 Archives

Sunday's Sun features a story about a couple of Naperville-area Realtors who bought one of those conversion kits that make a diesel engine run on vegetable oil. At $4 a gallon for gas and even more for diesel, they figure the $1,000 kit will pay for itself in a matter of months.

What are you doing to save money on gas? Driving less? Looking to trade in that SUV for a compact? Rethinking that summer drive to the Grand Canyon? How are you coping with the high gas prices? And how do you pay for gas--cash or credit?

Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel and others addressed the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation Saturday about encouraging residents to visit local attractions instead of heading out of town, what with today's gas prices.

You can read the story here in The Sun:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1018997,6_1_NA23_NAHC_S1.article

With festivals, concerts and destinations like Centennial Beach, the DuPage Children's Museum and Naper Settlement, there is a lot to do in town. What's your favorite summertime event/activity/destination in Naperville?

It's almost finished--a pedestrian bridge across Route 59. We see these over interstates, but how many like this cross state highways? The bridge will connect neighborhoods like Tall Grass with destinations like the YMCA, library and Neuqua Valley High School.

The city says the foot bridge cost $2.5 million, and that feds paid 75 percent of the cost, which would mean Naperville's share was somewhere in the neighborhood of $625,000.

Is it worth it? Will you use it when it opens in a few weeks?

Naperville's City Council Tuesday night decided to join a consortium that opposes Canadian National's acquisition of the EJ&E Railway. Opponents say increased freight traffic at grade-level crossings would hinder the ability of emergency vehicles to get around town, slow school buses and cause delays for commuters. Yet officials concede that federal officials appear likely to approve CN's acquisition of the EJ&E. If and when that happens, opponents--like Naperville--might wage a legal battle as a next step. This could end up being a costly move. Do you agree with Naperville's decision to join other towns and counties fighting the sale? What will the impact be to you if the acquisition goes through?

A report in Monday's Sun details how some commuters who use Naperville's Smart Card system to pay for parking at the Route 59 Metra lot are getting stuck with $15 tickets because of a machine malfunction. Those who believe they have received parking tickets in error can appeal.

The story also reports how Naperville's dramatic increase in quarterly parking permit fees hasn't had much of an effect on demand yet. With costs doubling to $120 for residents, the thought was that some who hoard the passes without using them very often would drop them, thus putting a dent into that list of some 3,700 people waiting two to six years to get a parking permit for a commuter lot.

But that hasn't happened. So far, only nine people have withdrawn from the program, a city official said.

Should Naperville charge even more money, then take those funds and create more parking for commuters? Are you taking the train more often now that gas costs more than $4 a gallon? What's your experience with commuter parking in Naperville?

A report in Sunday's Sun describes what local governments are doing about high fuel prices. The city of Naperville, for example, says its cut fuel consumption by 6 percent in recent years by reducing the number of vehicles in its fleet, buying fuel wholesale, and taking other steps. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is using alternative fuels. The Naperville Park District is telling workers not to leave vehicles idling.

What do you think -- are these steps enough? Remember not long ago when a whistleblower told DuPage County Board members how public works employees were filling up personal vehicles with gas paid for by county taxpayers? And that was before $4 a gallon gas. How confident are you that there are no thefts by employees taking place now?

What are you doing to cut your own personal fuel consumption? What do you think government agencies should do to reduce fuel costs?

It's rough being a small-business owner, especially when a construction project chokes off access to your business. That's the case of a Bailey Road florist (just down the street from Extra Value Liquors), who says business has fallen off 75 percent since the city closed the Bailey Road Bridge for a summer reconstruction project.

His beef is that he thinks the city didn't do a very good job notifying the neighborhood about the project. He wishes the city got residents and business owners together at a meeting to talk about it. The city says it sent letters, publicized the work and featured it prominently on its Web site, and that this isn't the sort of debate-driven issue that warrants a meeting.

What say you? Should the city have conducted a neighborhood meeting about this project? Is this just the case of a merchant whose seen his sales slashed venting his frustration at the city? Overall, how well do you think the city communicates with its residents and merchants?

Naperville got out of an agreement with a company that was supposed to install cameras to catch red-light offenders at selected intersections. But the city isn't ready to kiss good-bye the nearly $900,000 in revenue those cameras were expected to generate in fines. Naperville expects to choose a new vendor and install cameras at busier intersections along Route 59, a move expected to generate as much revenue (in a shorter time) as the other cameras would have.

What do you make of all this? Are you confident the cameras provided by the new vendor, once chosen, will be reliable? Are you concerned about reports that some jurisdictions are abandoning red-light camera enforcement programs due to problems? What about the plan to shift focus to Route 59? If those are the intersections with the biggest concerns about safety, why wasn't the focus there all along?